Kanye West praises Frank Ocean for coming out as LGBT

The rapper also said he felt discriminated against in the fashion industry for being straight

Despite hip hop being one of the most expressive, eclectic and progressive genres in music, the industry has been notoriously narrow-minded when it comes to sexuality. However, as we reported earlier this year, the past decade has thankfully seen a gradual shift in attitudes towards LGBT people in hip hop, with homophobic language steadily decreasing since peak Gangster-rap era in the early noughties. Whether this is down to the progression of LGBT rights in society, or artists like Frank Ocean paving the way, being gay and being into hip hop simultaneously is no longer such a big deal.

In a two-hour interview with SHOWstudio yesterday, Kanye West echoed these ideas and praised Frank Ocean for being open about having a relationship with a man. ''Like people don't have a problem with white rappers now because Eminem ended up being the greatest artist, and everyone thought that with Frank Ocean,” Kanye explained. “I think it's so cliché to mention him with this subject but there always are people who broke the ground and I think he is the one who broke the ground because people don't give a fuck. People love his music so much. The people who break the stereotypes make history.''

In the same interview, he also said that he was proud to be in the same family as Caitlyn Jenner, who broke ground by the public nature of her transition. "First thing I thought about (when hearing about Caitlyn's transition), I thought about black radio hosts maybe making jokes about it, because the black culture is homophobic and they're desperately trying to find news. But then it was like, fuck what people say, fuck what people think, I feel proud to be in a family that has so many people breaking ground for the generations to come. Wow. It's like, ‘reality show’, that's so new. My family should have had multiple Emmys now…To let your life be controlled by the public, would be like asking to sit in traffic, for the rest of your life! And Bruce, he just got off at the next exit. I'm sorry, that name's offensive. I'm sorry, it's new. It's really the beginning of the future."

He then spoke about how he believes he is discriminated against in the fashion industry for not being gay, saying: “Where it's like I felt that I got discriminated against in fashion also for not being gay. Whereas in music you definitely get discriminated against if you are gay. And it definitely takes some amazing talents to really break down that barrier.

''I just thought it was interesting to point that out about the fashion world and the music world and how just culturally it's reverse discrimination.''